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- Tigray President Debretsion Gebremichael confirmed that his forces bombed the airport in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, on Saturday.
- Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military offensive in the northern Tigray region earlier this month.
- The UN says the fighting in Ethiopia led to more than 14,500 people fleeing to Sudan.
The leader of Ethiopia’s Tigray region claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks on the airport in the neighboring capital of Eritrea on Sunday, a move that raised fears of a broader conflict in the Horn of Africa region.
Diplomats told AFP on Saturday night that several rockets had hit the capital Asmara, landing near the airport, although communication restrictions in Tigray and Eritrea made it difficult to verify the reports.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced on November 4 that he had ordered military operations in Tigray in a dramatic escalation of a long-standing dispute with the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
“Ethiopian forces are also using the Asmara airport,” TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael told AFP on Sunday, saying this made the airport a “legitimate target” for the attacks.
He added that his forces had also been fighting “16 divisions” of the Eritrean forces in recent days “on various fronts”.
The TPLF has previously accused the Abiy government of obtaining military support from Eritrea, something that Ethiopia denies.
There was no immediate response from the governments of Eritrea or Ethiopia on Sunday.
It was unclear how many rockets were fired Saturday night, where they were fired from in Tigray, whether they hit their targets or what damage they caused.
The US embassy in Asmara posted an advisory on its website Sunday about “a series of loud noises” around 7:50 pm Saturday night.
“Unconfirmed reports indicate that they may have been explosive devices believed to be in the vicinity of Asmara International Airport. There is no indication that the airport has been attacked,” the advisory said.
The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades and fought a brutal border war between 1998 and 2000 with Eritrea that left tens of thousands dead.
Abiy came to power in 2018 and won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, largely for his effort to initiate rapprochement with Eritrea.
Refugees fleeing
Hundreds of people have been killed so far in the conflict in Africa’s second most populous country, some in a gruesome massacre documented last week by Amnesty International.
More than 20,000 Ethiopians have fled as refugees to Sudan, a number that continues to rise, Sudanese officials say.
Among them are Ethiopians returning to the camps where they and their families sought refuge from a devastating famine decades ago.
To cross the river at the border of the two countries, they climb into small boats packed with other exhausted and terrified Ethiopians seeking safety.
“I am filled with immeasurable sadness, because when I left 20 years ago, I never thought that I would come back as a miserable refugee,” said Gabriel, a 40-year-old farmer who arrived in eastern Sudan this week, asking to be identified by name. stack because he feared for his safety.
Back in Ethiopia, the UN is pushing for full humanitarian access to Tigray, where Debretsion says hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced by fighting that has featured multiple rounds of government airstrikes.
Conflicting narratives
Since Abiy came to power in 2018 following anti-government protests, the TPLF has complained of being marginalized and made a scapegoat for Ethiopia’s troubles.
The dispute grew more intense after Tigray went ahead with his own elections in September, defying a national ban on all polls imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and tried to label him an illegitimate ruler.
The immediate catalyst for the military operations in Tigray, Abiy has said, was a TPLF attack on federal military camps.
The TPLF has denied that the attack ever occurred, although Abiy’s office took advantage of a recent interview with the Tigrayan media in which a senior TPLF official, Sekuture Getachew, said that “it was imperative to carry out an attack like thunder.” .
“If it hadn’t been for the mission, maybe Abiy had the opportunity to command dictatorially for a short period,” Sekuture said in the interview, adding that the TPLF now controlled most of the army’s Northern Command firepower. Ethiopian.
Other TPLF leaders have not commented on the interview.
No conversations yet
Ethiopian lawmakers have backed a plan to install an interim administration in Tigray, and officials have issued arrest warrants for Debretsion and other TPLF leaders.
The Abiy government has said that the TPLF needs to be disarmed before negotiations can begin, frustrating world leaders who call for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Meanwhile, fears remain that the conflict could attract other regions of Ethiopia.
On Saturday, the TPLF claimed responsibility for rocket attacks at two airports in the Amhara region, which borders Tigray to the south.
